Afire(2023)

Coming Through the Rye(en)

Coming Through the Rye, set in 1969, is a touching coming of age story of sensitive, 16 year old Jamie Schwartz, who is not the most popular kid at his all boys' boarding school. Disconnected from students and teachers, he believes he is destined to play Holden Caulfield, the main character of The Catcher in the Rye, and has adapted the book as a play.

Employee of the Month(fr)

What does a lifetime of service get you? That's what Inès (Jasmina Douieb) wants to find out. As the long-time office manager for EcoCleanPro Cleaning Supplies, she's the only woman on staff in this very sexist office. She does whatever it takes to keep things running – even if it means replacing toilet paper her male coworkers can't seem to do themselves. After the regional manager's visit reveals abysmal numbers in gender pay equity at EcoCleanPro, Inès wants her dedication to pay off with a raise. Unfortunately, her request is rejected by her incompetent boss Patrick (Peter Van den Begin) and, fueled by the unfairness and under the watchful eye of Melody (Laetitia Mampaka), the new intern, Inès redoubles her efforts for compensation. When her history with Patrick rears its ugly head and leads to an accident, all hell breaks loose, and the two women must combine troubleshooting skills for possibly the biggest mess of their lives.

Cradle Will Rock(en)

A true story of politics and art in the 1930s USA, centered around a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production.

Sea of Time(nl)

Two former lovers find themselves struggling for shared closure as one of them prepares to stage a play about the unspeakable tragedy that tore them apart decades ago.

Critical Zone(fa)

Amir leads a lonely life. With his dog for sole company, he drives through the underworld of Tehran, dealing drugs of all kinds and healing troubled souls like a modern prophet. He navigates the city streets aimlessly, following the directions of his GPS while getting high to escape a town with no future. And yet, in his wandering he will find the seed of resistance.

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman(fr)

A lost cat, a giant talkative frog and a tsunami help a bank employee without ambition, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant to save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives.

Die Feuer- und die Wasserprobe. Gespräche mit Thomas Bernhard(de)

In this film, Austrian author Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989) talks about his childhood, his youth, his life in Austria, and his coming to terms, as a writer, with all the experiences of dying – his own and those of the culture of his time.

The Load(sr)

Vlada works as a truck driver during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. Tasked with transporting a mysterious load from Kosovo to Belgrade, he drives through unfamiliar territory, trying to make his way in a country scarred by the war. He knows that once the job is over, he will need to return home and face the consequences of his actions.

Holly(fr)

After Holly seems to have predicted a deadly school fire, all eyes are on her. Her teacher invites her to volunteer in the grieving community. Holly gives peace, warmth, and hope. Soon people start demanding more and more of her.

Yella(de)

A young East German woman leaves her husband and business partner and relocates to a West German city to start anew as an accountant, but he soon catches up with her.

Rimini(de)

Richie Bravo, once upon a time a successful pop star, chases after his faded fame in wintry Rimini. Trapped between permanent intoxication and concerts for busloads of tourists, his world starts to collapse when his adult daughter breaks into his life.

Tiger Stripes(ms)

Twelve year old Zaffan lives in a small rural community in Malaysia. In full puberty, she realizes that her body is changing at an alarming rate. Her friends turn away from her when a mass hysteria hits the school. Fear spreads and a doctor intervenes to chase away the demon that haunts the girls. Like a tiger harassed and dislodged from its habitat, Zaffan decides to reveal its true nature, its fury, its rage and its beauty.

Riceboy Sleeps(en)

In the 1990s, an immigrant single mother raises her teenage son in the Canadian suburbs, determined to provide a better life for him than the one she left behind in South Korea.

Benediction(en)

Poet Siegfried Sassoon survived the horrors of fighting in the First World War and was decorated for his bravery, but became a vocal critic of the government's continuation of the war when he returned from service. Adored by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London's literary and stage world, he embarked on affairs with several men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality.

The Fantastic Three(fr)

Max, a witty and brave 12-year-old, feels like he has two families instead of one. In and after school, he spends all his time with his two best friends Tom and Vivian, who are always there to make life easier for each other. Together, they are The Fantastic Three. His real family on the other hand, is messy, with a depressed single mother and a brother in jail.

The Rapture(fr)

Lydia, a midwife very invested in her work, is in the middle of a breakup. At the same time, her best friend, Salomé, announces to her that she is pregnant and asks her to follow her pregnancy. The day Lydia meets Milos, a one-night stand, while she is holding her friend's baby in her arms, she sinks into a lie, at the risk of losing everything.

The Song of Names(en)

A man searching for his childhood best friend — a Polish violin prodigy orphaned in the Holocaust — who vanished decades before on the night of his first public performance.

About Endlessness(sv)

A reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality, guided by a Scheherazade-esque narrator. Inconsequential moments have the same significance as historical events. Simultaneously an ode and a lament, presents a kaleidoscope of all that is eternally human, an infinite story of the vulnerability of existence.

What Comes Around(en)

A young love affair becomes a menacing game of cat and mouse where nothing is what it seems in this immersive thriller.

Until Death(en)

Anthony Stowe is a dirty cop who is hooked on heroin—and everyone hates him. After a serious accident, he is placed into an induced coma, but emerges from it a better person who wants to put things right.

Girls on Top(de)

The adventures of three teenage girls - Inken, Vicky and Lena - and their quest to have their first orgasm.

Crazy(de)

Benjamin, a 16-year-old with lousy grades, switches to a boarding school in order to eventually reach grammar school. Adjusting to his new environment is difficult as he has to struggle with being a teen... specially when he falls in love to the school's dream girl, Malen.

Boys on the Side(en)

After breaking up with her girlfriend, a nightclub singer, Jane, answers a personal ad from Robin, a real estate agent with AIDS, seeking a cross-country travel partner. On their journey from New York City to Los Angeles, the two stop by Pittsburgh to pick up Jane's friend Holly, who is trying to escape an abusive relationship. With three distinct personalities, the women must overcome their differences to help one another.

Baka Sakali(tl)

Seymour is interested in Faith until he meets Ferds in a beautiful waterfall resort. The two young men become good friends, and then lovers.

LIEB MICH! - Latin Gay Shorts Volume 5(de)

Perfect Obedience(es)

The fictional Father Ángel de la Cruz is based on Legion of Christ founder Marcial Maciel, whose long history of child abuse was not addressed until 2006 and only publicly acknowledged in 2009. But director Luis Urquiza chooses to structure his film through the largely uncomprehending, wondering eyes of 13-year-old Julián, who travels from the arms of his loving pastoral family into the austere, hallowed halls of the seminary. Singling out the boy as his intimate disciple, installing him in his palatial private quarters and redubbing him “Sacramento Santos,” Father Ángel begins Julian’s instruction into the mysteries of “perfect obedience,” whose cardinal rule is: Never question a superior’s actions.

Wendy and Lucy(en)

A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.

I Love You Phillip Morris(en)

Steven Russell leads a seemingly average life – an organ player in the local church, happily married to Debbie, and a member of the local police force. That is until he has a severe car accident that leads him to the ultimate epiphany: he’s gay and he’s going to live life to the fullest – even if he has to break the law to do it. Taking on an extravagant lifestyle, Steven turns to cons and fraud to make ends meet and is eventually sent to the State Penitentiary where he meets the love of his life, a sensitive, soft-spoken man named Phillip Morris. His devotion to freeing Phillip from jail and building the perfect life together prompts him to attempt (and often succeed at) one impossible con after another.

The Tree of Life(en)

The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

Dog Days(de)

Vignettes of the lives of several residents of a Vienna suburb during a heat wave.

One Deadly Summer(fr)

In spring 1976, a 19-year-old beauty, her German-born mother, and her crippled father move to the town of a firefighter nicknamed Pin-Pon. Everyone notices the provocative Eliane. She singles out Pin-Pon and soon is crying on his shoulder (she's myopic and hates her reputation as a dunce and as easy); she moves in with him, knits baby clothes, and plans their wedding. Is this love or some kind of plot? She asks Pin-Pon's mother and aunt about the piano in the barn: who delivered it on a November night in 1955? Why does she want to know, and what does it have to do with her mother's sorrows, her father's injury, this quick marriage, and the last name on her birth certificate?

Where in the Hell(en)

When her girlfriend disappears mid-road trip, sardonic prop master Kasey is left stranded in a California backwater. Panicked, she hitches a ride with cash-strapped actor Alan on his trek to an audition in Canada. Together, the unlikely duo dodges Reno psychics, stale corn nuts, and border security on a quest to find a missing soulmate and maybe validation.

Buffalo Soldiers(en)

A criminal subculture operates among U.S. soldiers stationed in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin wall.

Kopps(sv)

A small Swedish village, Högboträsk, is so peaceful that crime is nonexistent. The police spend their shifts drinking coffee, eating hot dogs and chasing down runaway cows. This is all well and good for the village's own police, but the police management board wants to discontinue the local police force for lack of crime.

The Wedding Banquet(zh)

A Taiwanese-American man is happily settled in New York with his American boyfriend. He plans a marriage of convenience to a Chinese woman in order to keep his parents off his back and to get the woman a green card. Chaos follows when his parents arrive in New York for the wedding.

Beautiful Girls(en)

During a snowy winter in the small fictional town of Knight's Ridge, Massachusetts, a group of lifelong buddies hang out, drink and struggle to connect with the women who affect their decisions, dreams and desires.

How to Be Alone(he)

Relying on "How to Be Alone" – a self-improvement audio book – a heartbroken lesbian woman, struggling with her lonesome existence, decides to embrace solitude and to learn how to survive without love.

Cervantes from the Small Town(sh)

'Malo Misto' lives its own life, but not far behind the times. Hotel manager Roko Prč strives to organise tourism, so he introduces the first nudist beach. His wife Anđa brings two of her cousins from the Dalmatian hinterland and demands Roko to hire them. One of them, a young man named Ikan, earns the attention of a beautiful Swedish tourist. From Chile to Malo Misto returned Tonči, nicknamed Servantes, of course, without any money. He fell on the back of his hardworking aunt Keka, who even without him has enough problems of her own. Servantes also experiences an unexpected romance.

Foreign Language(fr)

Fanny, a shy and lonely teenager, goes on a language exchange to Germany. In Leipzig, she meets her pen pal, Lena, a teenager eager to become politically active. Fanny is troubled. To win over Lena, she invents a life for herself, to the extent of becoming trapped in her lies.

The Eight Mountains(it)

An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the breathtaking Italian Alps, The Eight Mountains follows over four decades the profound, complex relationship between Pietro and Bruno.